Comparison of the efficacy of 308-nm excimer lamp monotherapy with topical tacrolimus or clobetasol 17-propionate combination therapies in localized vitiligo.

BACKGROUND

In recent years, excimer light treatments have come to the fore in localized vitiligo because of their high efficacy and safety.

OBJECTIVE

We aimed to evaluate the efficacy of 308-nm excimer lamp as a monotherapy and its combination with tacrolimus 0.1% or clobetasol 17-propionate 0.05% ointment in localized vitiligo.

METHODS

We performed a retrospective study including a total of 82 patients who were treated with excimer lamp monotherapy (EL group) (n = 30), excimer lamp + topical tacrolimus (EL + T group) (n = 29), or excimer lamp + topical clobetasol 17-propionate (EL + CS group) (n = 23). We used digital morphometric analysis for the evaluation of repigmentation.

RESULTS

Median healing rate after 24 sessions was significantly higher in EL + T group (69%) than EL (42.5%) and EL + CS (44%) groups (P = 0.008 and P = 0.032). There were not any patients with face lesions in EL + CS group, so when these patients were excluded, EL + T and EL + CS groups had higher healing rates than EL group (P = 0.037 and P = 0.043). It was confirmed that combination with tacrolimus was superior to clobetasol-17 propionate (P = 0.048) with multivariate regression analysis.

CONCLUSION

We noted that 308-nm excimer lamp therapy was efficacious; adding topical tacrolimus or topical clobetasol-17 propionate could increase response to treatment.